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Thursday, May 05, 2016

Commentary

By Frances Rice

Hillary
Clinton is one step closer to imprisonment. The presumptive Democratic Party's presidential nominee is being pushed toward jail at the point of a spear
by the Romanian hacker, Marcel Lehel Lazar, known as “Guccifer.” Clinton
claims her unsecure email server was never breached, but that assertion was
exposed a bald-faced lie by Lazar who spoke exclusively with Fox News as shown in the below article. Lazar said
he easily – and repeatedly – breached Clinton’s personal email server in early
2013.

Notably, a

federal judge further opened the door to forcing Hillary Clinton
to be deposed over her secret email server.

The
Hill reports: A federal judge on Wednesday opened the door to interviewing
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton as part of a review into
her use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Judge
Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia laid out
the ground rules for interviewing multiple State Department officials about the
emails, with an eye toward finishing the depositions in the weeks before the
party nominating conventions.

Clinton
herself may be forced to answer questions under oath, Sullivan said, though she
is not yet being forced to take that step.

A former federal prosecutor said Clinton could be the first
president in history to be prohibited from looking at classified material.

The
Washington Examiner reports: Hillary Clinton could be the first president to be
prohibited from looking at classified information if she is ultimately placed
on probation for alleged wrongdoing as secretary of state, a former U.S.
attorney speculated.

"I
think it would be kind of uncharted territory," Matthew Whitaker, a former
prosecutor under the George W. Bush administration's Justice Department, told
the Washington Examiner. "Some of these statutes that could potentially
[have been] violated certainly could bar somebody from future security
clearances" … In the event Clinton is charged with a crime, there is a
strong likelihood that federal prosecutors could offer her a plea deal instead
of forcing a trial.

That
deal would include a probationary period, and could prevent Clinton from
looking at classified information until the end of that period.

____________

Romanian
hacker Guccifer: I breached Clinton server, 'it was easy'

By Catherine
Herridge and Pamela K. Browne

The
infamous Romanian hacker known as “Guccifer,” speaking exclusively with Fox
News, claimed he easily – and repeatedly – breached former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton’s personal email server in early 2013.

"For
me, it was easy ... easy for me, for everybody," Marcel Lehel Lazar, who
goes by the moniker "Guccifer," told Fox News from a Virginia jail
where he is being held.

Guccifer’s
potential role in the Clinton email investigation was first reported by Fox
News last month. The hacker subsequently claimed he was able to access the
server – and provided extensive details about how he did it and what he found –
over the course of a half-hour jailhouse interview and a series of recorded
phone calls with Fox News. Fox News could not independently confirm Lazar’s
claims.

The
former secretary of state’s server held nearly 2,200 emails containing
information now deemed classified, and another 22 at the “Top Secret” level.

The
44-year-old Lazar said he first compromised Clinton confidant Sidney
Blumenthal's AOL account, in March 2013, and used that as a stepping stone to
the Clinton server. He said he accessed Clinton’s server “like twice,” though
he described the contents as “not interest[ing]” to him at the time.

“I
was not paying attention. For me, it was not like the Hillary Clinton server,
it was like an email server she and others were using with political voting
stuff," Guccifer said.

The
hacker spoke freely with Fox News from the detention center in Alexandria, Va.,
where he’s been held since his extradition to the U.S. on federal charges
relating to other alleged cyber-crimes. Wearing a green jumpsuit, Lazar was
relaxed and polite in the monitored secure visitor center, separated by thick
security glass.

In
describing the process, Lazar said he did extensive research on the web and
then guessed Blumenthal’s security question. Once inside Blumenthal's account,
Lazar said he saw dozens of messages from the Clinton email address.

Asked
if he was curious about the address, Lazar merely smiled. Asked if he used the
same security question approach to access the Clinton emails, he said no – then
described how he allegedly got inside.

“For
example, when Sidney Blumenthal got an email, I checked the email pattern from
Hillary Clinton, from Colin Powell from anyone else to find out the originating
IP. … When they send a letter, the email header is the originating IP usually,”
Lazar explained.

He
said, “then I scanned with an IP scanner."

Lazar
emphasized that he used readily available web programs to see if the server was
“alive” and which ports were open. Lazar identified programs like netscan,
Netmap, Wireshark and Angry IP, though it was not possible to confirm
independently which, if any, he used.

In
the process of mining data from the Blumenthal account, Lazar said he came
across evidence that others were on the Clinton server.

"As
far as I remember, yes, there were … up to 10, like, IPs from other parts of
the world,” he said.

With
no formal computer training, he did most of his hacking from a small Romanian
village.

Lazar
said he chose to use "proxy servers in Russia," describing them as
the best, providing anonymity.

Cyber
experts who spoke with Fox News said the process Lazar described is plausible.
The federal indictment Lazar faces in the U.S. for cyber-crimes specifically
alleges he used "a proxy server located in Russia" for the Blumenthal
compromise.

Each
Internet Protocol (IP) address has a unique numeric code, like a phone number
or home address. The Democratic presidential front-runner’s home-brew
private server was reportedly installed in her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., and
used for all U.S. government business during her term as secretary of
state.

Former
State Department IT staffer Bryan Pagliano, who installed and maintained the
server, has been granted immunity by the Department of Justice and is
cooperating with the FBI in its ongoing criminal investigation into Clinton’s
use of the private server. An intelligence source told Fox News last month that
Lazar also could help the FBI make the case that Clinton’s email server may
have been compromised by a third party.

Asked
what he would say to those skeptical of his claims, Lazar cited “the evidence
you can find in the Guccifer archives as far as I can remember."

Writing
under his alias Guccifer, Lazar released to media outlets in March 2013
multiple exchanges between Blumenthal and Clinton. They were first reported by
the Smoking Gun.

It
was through the Blumenthal compromise that the Clintonemail.com accounts were
first publicly revealed.

As
recently as this week, Clinton said neither she nor her aides had been
contacted by the FBI about the criminal investigation. Asked whether the server
had been compromised by foreign hackers, she told MSNBC on Tuesday, “No, not at
all.”

Recently
extradited, Lazar faces trial Sept. 12 in the Eastern District of Virginia. He
has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count federal indictment for his alleged
hacking crimes in the U.S. Victims are not named in the indictment but
reportedly include Colin Powell, a member of the Bush family and others
including Blumenthal.

Lazar
spoke extensively about Blumenthal’s account, noting his emails were
“interesting” and had information about “the Middle East and what they were
doing there.”

After
first writing to the accused hacker on April 19, Fox News accepted two collect
calls from him, over a seven-day period, before meeting with him in person at
the jail. During these early phone calls, Lazar was more guarded.

After
the detention center meeting, Fox News conducted additional interviews by phone
and, with Lazar's permission, recorded them for broadcast.

While
Lazar's claims cannot be independently verified, three computer security
specialists, including two former senior intelligence officials, said the
process described is plausible and the Clinton server, now in FBI custody, may
have an electronic record that would confirm or disprove Guccifer’s claims.

"This
sounds like the classic attack of the late 1990s. A smart individual who knows
the tools and the technology and is looking for glaring weaknesses in
Internet-connected devices," Bob Gourley, a former chief technology
officer (CTO) for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said.

Gourley,
who has worked in cybersecurity for more than two decades, said the programs
cited to access the server can be dual purpose. "These programs are used
by security professionals to make sure systems are configured appropriately.
Hackers will look and see what the gaps are, and focus their energies on
penetrating a system," he said.

Cybersecurity
expert Morgan Wright observed, "The Blumenthal account gave [Lazar] a road
map to get to the Clinton server. ... You get a foothold in one system. You get
intelligence from that system, and then you start to move."

In
March, the New York Times reported the Clinton server security logs showed no
evidence of a breach. On whether the Clinton security logs would show a
compromise, Wright made the comparison to a bank heist: "Let’s say only
one camera was on in the bank. If you don‘t have them all on, or the right one
in the right locations, you won’t see what you are looking for.”

Gourley
said the logs may not tell the whole story and the hard drives, three years
after the fact, may not have a lot of related data left. He also warned:
"Unfortunately, in this community, a lot people make up stories and it's
hard to tell what's really true until you get into the forensics information
and get hard facts.”

For
Lazar, a plea agreement where he cooperates in exchange for a reduced sentence
would be advantageous. He told Fox News he has nothing to hide and wants to cooperate
with the U.S. government, adding that he has hidden two gigabytes of data that
is “too hot” and “it is a matter of national security.”

In
early April, at the time of Lazar’s extradition from a Romanian prison where he
already was serving a seven-year sentence for cyber-crimes, a former senior FBI
official said the timing was striking.

“Because
of the proximity to Sidney Blumenthal and the activity involving Hillary’s
emails, [the timing] seems to be something beyond curious,” said Ron Hosko,
former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division from
2012-2014.

About This Blog & the National Black Republican Association

Lieutenant Colonel Frances Rice, United States Army, Retired is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and retired from the Army in 1984 after 20 years of active service. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Drury College in 1973, a Masters of Business Administration from Golden Gate University in 1976, and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1977.
In 2005, she became a co-founder and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association, an organization that is committed to returning African Americans to their Republican Party roots.
Please, no donations.
Email contact: NationalBlackRepublican@Gmail.com